18 March 1999
I will tell you why many Chinese-Americans, both foreign-born and native,
are reacting so viscerally to the latest nuclear spy story revolving
around
a 59-year old Taiwanese-American scientist.
Wen-Ho Lee, of New Mexico, a contract employee from the University
of
California assigned to Los Alamos Lab in Albuquerque, was summarily
discharged recently from his sensitive post by Secretary of Energy
Bill
Richardson, strewn in the swirling vortex of "cloak and dagger"
theft
charges by U.S. counterintelligence against China.
This is not just about the guilt or innocence of a single, ethnic,
foreign-born citizen of Chinese descent, for which none of us,in the
diverse
communities of Diasporic Chinese all throughout the globe, given what
little
dribble of credible information disclosed thus far by official authorities,
including the FBI, can even begin to conjecture much less conclude.
All we know is that he was fired based on some breaches of workplace
rules
at Los Alamos, without a hearing, have not been arrested nor charged.
He has
neither come forward publicly to defend himself,nor has his or her
attorney
appeared, assuming that he has retained one.
The mainstream news media and radio talk-show hosts have behaved
like
"barracudas" since the story broke in the New York Times. They have
shaped
the story from suspicion,
and allegations of espionage, to definitive conclusion that he is a
Chinese
"mole", vocaraciously attacking him in a feeding frenzy.
The coverage has been irresponbile and in my opinion, despicable and
inflamatory, not unlike Richard
Jewell, the rotund "Samaritan" security guard hounded as the "Atlanta
Olympics bomber" by many in the American press. As it turned out,
subsquently, Mr. Jewell was not only exonerated but found to have been
a
victim of defamatory conduct by irresponsible members of the press.
This is the "Rodney King" "O.J. Simpson" cases of the Chinese-American
community, bringing with it, and conjuring up all the emotional hysteria
of
a public media and a partisan Republican lynching of a private,obscure
foreign-born scientist in a massive, "guilt by ethnicity," Kafkaesque
inquisition which violates basic, fundamental principles of fair play,
due
process, and the constitutional protections, including the presumption
of
innocence, right to counsel, and equal protection under the laws.
Worse, the process by which Wen-Ho Lee was trapped in this vortex of
suspicion, complicity, and betrayal of secrets, have been massaged
by a
confluence of strange bedfellows including, the neo-China bashers from
the
Left and the Right, the human rights lobby, certain Republican wannabes
capitalizing on a hot campaign issue, certain cold warrriors from the
American Defense and Intelligence institutions listless and jobless
after
the collaspe of the former Soviet Union and the demise of the Evil
Empire.
In the Rodney King beating, African-Americans reacted emotionally because
they live and experience police brutality and disparate treatment from
law-enforcement officials.
With O.J. Simpson, they looked at the farcical criminal justice system
in
America, and basically chalked one up for a black man in distress with
jury
nullification. American jails are filled with 2 million inmates of
which a
disproportionate number, over seventy (70) per cent are African-Americans.
A majority of African-Americans, in their lifetime, will be entangled,
in
one form or another, in America's criminal system, oftentimes charged,
prosecuted, and incarcerated.
And so it is with Chinese-Americans and Diasporic Chinese overseas,
including myself, and especially professionals, academics, and
scientists
who all can relate to experiences of uneven, unequal, disparate, and/or
cold
and racist treatment in the American professional workplace,
research
labs, academia,
and the mainstream societal institutions, from news media to corporate
America.
As it was with African-Americans' alienation and disconnectness from
our
police enforcement apparata and criminal justice system, the majority
of
Chinese-American professionals and scientists are alienated and frustrated
by the many "glass ceilings" and ethnic stigmatization that attaches
to
their 'Asianness,' 'Foreigness,' and the 'Everyone looks and acts alike'
stereotype in the environment surrounding their country of citizenship.
In the the fields of cutting-edge technology, it is not uncommon to
see
foreign-born scientists and professionals from China, Taiwan, HongKong,
or
Southeast Asian Diasporic Chinese communities, as is the case from
India,
Pakistan, Bangla Desh.
Let us not mince our words about our role as Diasporic Chinese overseas
in
U.S.-China Relations.
When the pendulum of U.S.-China relations swings upward, Diasporic Chinese
overseas, by virtue of their dual identity, backgrounds, and language
skills, are viewed positively as "bridges." to liaise with the homeland,
and
to close the cultural divide between the homeland to their adopted
country,
and vice-versa. When good business deals materialize, our "middleman"
role
is encouraged.
These exchanges contribute to the success of foreign trade, promote
American
economic growth that benefits all Americans.
In a world of increasing globalization, all forms of exchanges, social,
academic,
cultural, economic, between the world's most powerful and the
world's most populous is not only inevitable, necessary but healthy.
On the other hand, in this latest downward swing of the pendulum in
U.S>-China relations, our "bridging" role has now become a liability
and an
object of suspicion, mistrust, and disloyalty. Where contacts, liaisons,
developing "guanxi" in the past were desired, now the potential "fifth
column" tag attaches.
As an American citizen of Chinese descent, a Diaspora ethnic Chinese
with
cultural ties to China and things Chinese, I hope this latest downward
swing
of the pendulum in U.S.-China relations does not deteriorate further
into a
climate of witchunts and McCartyism, irrational China bashing,
Chinese-American lynchings, and guilt by ethnicity.
Wen-Ho Lee, the Chinese-American nuclear scientist, deserves to be treated
fairly, and equally, no more, no less, like any other American, whether
native or foreign-born. Until his guilt is proven in our American system
of
justice, he deserves no less than our much-vaunted presumption of innocence.
Hounding and tagging him as a Chinese spy, at this time, is irresponsible
and violates the fundamental spirit of fair play and justice in America.
EL
